Stereotypes: All Slytherins are Evil
by dork-with-glasses
Summary: Stereotype. noun. Defined as: a commonly held public belief about specific social groups, or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" ... Evil. adjective. Morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

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Stereotype. _noun. _Defined as: a commonly held public belief about specific social groups, or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" ...

Evil. _adjective. _Morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked.

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_1977_

All Slytherins are evil.

I've been told this time and time again, by my own brother in fact. Apparently it's a fact but I don't think so.

Wouldn't that be generalising? It's like saying all purebloods want to make their children only associate with purebloods. As you should know, for some part it's true but it's mostly not. The Weasleys are the perfect example, and I don't even have to explain myself because it's an explanation enough.

Sure, I'm not going to go up and say that all Slytherins aren't evil because that would be, again, generalising and although most of the Slytherins I know are evil, some aren't. And I'd like to be included in that number.

It's quite an interesting thing, being brought up in a proud pureblood family, one who thinks muggleborns and blood traitors are scum. I'm not really sure if I'd be who I was today if I was brought up in a different family, but that's not the point.

From an early age we are brought up to believe that purebloods are the best, the more superior, the only people worth being, just that sort of thing. Some of us rebel, like Sirius, but most of us fall right into place, like we were born to do.

Does this make us evil? Doing what we're told?

Sure, some of the things some Slytherins do are extraordinarily evil, you don't even want to know and much less do I want to tell you, but not all Slytherins are in the same mould.

I suppose some people, myself included, fit into that annoying undetermined category. And I suppose you have to ask yourself the question; is a person evil if they are just carrying out the evil plans of someone else?

If your answer is yes, then congrats you've just called almost all of Slytherin house evil.

If your answer is no, well then we have some more things to think about.

If I were to pick up my wand right now and hex you with an illegal hex that would probably be considered as evil if you hadn't done anything to me.

If someone was to tell me to pick up my wand right now and hex you with an illegal hex would that make me evil?

And we go back to the previous question; is a person evil if they are just carrying out the evil plans of someone else?

If your answer is yes, then, like I said before, you've just called pretty much all of Slytherin evil.

If your answer is no, then there is a whole grey area of our house.

Most of us only do what other people tell us to do; we're cowards in our own little way.

But does being a coward make you evil?

That's something to think about.

Just because I turned my back on my brother because the rest of my family did, does that make me cruel?

And just because I hit Ben Harris with an illegal hex yesterday because Mulciber told me to, does that make me evil?

Am I, Regulus Black, a stereotypical Slytherin?

Or have I been incorrectly labelled?

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_1997_

All Slytherins are evil.

It's been said may times, but is it actually true?

Maybe I was evil, once, maybe in a point of my life I enjoyed watching others suffer.

But maybe that was just the beliefs drummed into me since birth.

And maybe I do believe it when I call Granger mudblood. And maybe I do feel superior to the Weasel.

But does that make me evil?

Does that actually make me want to physically hurt someone, or kill them?

There was a point in my 17 years of life that I would have liked nothing better than to get rid of Potter. But actually kill him? Ha, like I'd of had the guts.

Are wanting someone dead and actually killing them two different things?

Does one make you evil and the other not?

Does physically killing someone make you evil? Or is it if you actually want to do it different?

How about me _almost_ killing Dumbledore, does that make me evil? Even when I didn't actually want to do it in the end? Doesn't it depend on the circumstances?

When it really boils down to it, what is evil? Does wanting something evil done and not doing it make you evil? Does not wanting to do something evil but being forced make you evil?

If the answer to either of those is no then most of Slytherin isn't actually evil.

What are the qualities of Slytherins, anyway? Cunning, ambitious and sly. Evil is not, contrary to popular opinion, a defining quality. Sure, we attract loads of evil people because evil people are usually cunning and sly, not brave and bold like Gryffindors.

There are evil Slytherins; I'd be the first to admit it. But it doesn't make us all evil. There are grey areas, nothing is black and white. You'd be hard to find a completely angelic Slytherin because it's just not in our nature. But at the same time you'd have quite a hard job finding a completely evil Slytherin too. Most of us are various shades of grey. Slytherins are fickle; we change sides depending on what side is going to save our neck, so most of us don't have it in our nature to be completely evil.

I'm no angel; I've done some evil things in my life. But, again, does that make me evil? Does _doing_ something evil actually make you evil? Because if you didn't _want _to do it but you had to, then surely that doesn't make you evil.

Does this even matter? Is doing something evil enough to actually be evil?

If so then pretty much the whole house is evil.

If not, then I'm not too sure.

But am I, Draco Malfoy, truly evil?

Or have I been stereotyped?

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2023

All Slytherins are evil.

It's been told before. People have whispered it, talked about it and Rose Weasley has shouted it in my face. But does just repeating something make it a fact? No, of course it doesn't.

Just because my family has been described as evil for centuries, does that even make me evil?

Yes, my grandfather _was _in Voldemort's inner circle and yes, my grandfather _did _torture and kill countless people, muggles and wizards alike and certainly, my grandfather _was _evil. But what on earth does that have to do with all Slytherins being evil and more importantly, me being evil?

Sure, my dad made some really stupid choices, he became a Death Eater and was forced to torture innocent people, I'm not sure if that makes him evil or not but it doesn't have any effect on if I am.

Contrary to many people's beliefs, coming from a generally evil family does _not _make you evil.

I come from the Blacks, Malfoys and the Greengrasses. That's three of the most prominent pureblood families. And yes, evil is a word I'd use to describe most of the Blacks and most of the Malfoys (maybe not the Greengrasses as much). But not all of us were evil just because we were in Slytherin.

I, for instance, do not believe that my grandmother is evil, and she was a Slytherin. For crying out loud, she saved Harry Potter's life. How in the name of Merlin could you call her evil for saving the life of the saviour of the Wizarding world?

It's just the same nowadays in Slytherin. I admit we've got some seriously evil people (maybe not as many as before the war but we've still got some pretty sick bastards in here) in Slytherin but not all of us are like that.

Most of us don't jinx people for the fun of it anymore. I swear the only person I've ever jinxed to purposely do something to them is Rose Weasley, and that's because she does the same to me all the time, so that's fair in my opinion. Most Slytherins don't even do that. We're sly and cunning and therefore like to stay out of trouble, jinxing people doesn't really help us achieve that.

Nowadays most Slytherins aren't evil; they're just sly and cunning, like all Slytherins are. We'll defend ourselves and fight back if we are targeted but we aren't actually _evil_. Things have gotten better since the war you know.

We're mostly called evil because of who our families were in the war and what side we were on. And sadly for most of us Slytherins, our family was on the wrong side.

So am I, Scorpius Malfoy, a 'true' Slytherin?

Or am I being stereotyped because of my family's mistakes?

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Slytherins: cunning, sly and ambitious.

Cunning. _adjective._ artfully subtle or shrewd; crafty; sly.

Sly. _adjective. _stealthy, insidious, or secret.

Ambitious._ adjective_. having ambition; eagerly desirous of achieving or obtaining success, power, wealth, a specific goal, etc

And evil is, where?

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**Author's note: I hope you enjoyed this one-shot. It just came to me while I was trying to get to sleep the other day and I thought about how Slytherins are labelled as evil even when it's only some of whom are. Now I'm sure someone will mention it so I'll bring it up first, for Draco I agree that he probably was evil when he was younger (from probably the first book until part way through the sixth) but then he truly found out what it meant to be evil and he found out he actually wasn't evil.**

**Well I'd really appreciate reviews, if you have the time.**

**Thanks heaps for reading.**

**TTFN**

**Dork-with-glasses**

**Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


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